Prince Caspian

Now it seems that I often start my reviews with a little aside. So, why change a good thing… I have always been a big fan of the Chronicles of Narnia books. From the first time I read them as a child through to reading them yet again in the more recent years. There is something very powerful about stories where kids become the heroes. Even though over all I enjoyed Andrew Adamson’s “The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe”, I was left feeling as though it didn’t quite hit the mark. There was something unexplainable that was missing, which stood in the way of it being an “Epic” film.

Going into the second instalment “Prince Caspian” I had lowered my expectations to suit that of the first film in the series. However, I left the cinema feeling completely satisfied. Generally Prince Caspian is thought to be the weaker of the stories and yet Adamson seemed to have capitalised on this and created such impetus within this story that kept you hanging on the edge of your seat as the battle for Narnia unfolded right before your eyes.

With lusciously filmed scenes spread across New Zealand, England and Prague, Prince Caspian tantalises the senses. While at the same time the epic and yet gore-less battle scenes thrill the soul while illustrating the eternal struggle between good and bad. Although as the story unfolds we see it is less about the good verses bad and more of two different groups of people’s inability to find common ground until the God like figure of Aslan steps in to bring justice and equality.

This is how Narnia should have been captured. Certainly builds the cringe factor when looking back at the Made for TV BBC Narnia series. Over two hours and yet in both of the times that I ave seen this movie I never looked at my watch. Not even once.

Now from a family point of view this movie does contain large fantasy styled battle sequences but to put it in context, Adamson does a wonderful job of showing everything but the actual attack. For example you will see the sword being swung and you will see the enemy fall but you will not see the sword hit the person. Having said that, there is a huge amount of passion and intensity in these scenes that might not be handled but younger kids or those with very sensitive natures.